Marketing Mix De Aereolinas

he seven P's of marketing mix that influence SWA

Product

Product is "the bundles of benefits that the customers buy from the firm, be these from goods or services" (Ruskin-Brown, 2006). Besides that the product can be examining on three stages based on the figure below.

The main core product of Southwest's is offering air transport services, and in which they are using only Boeing 737 as to transport their customers, and besides that Southwest's is a low cost carrier which does not require luxuries services.

The tangible feature of the product is based on customer services provided by the flight attendants such as the way the attendants handling pre and post complaints, courtesies, etc. as to commit their mission of having highest quality of Customer Service delivered with a sense of warmth, friendliness, individual pride, and company spirit (Southwest, 2010).

Other services that can be obtained by the customers are the early bird check-in, P.A.W.S - allowed pet to fly with their owner, inflight internet, free bag carriage, no-frills and complimentary free drink for the Business Select fares. However, due to Southwest Airlines is a low cost carrier, there is minimum amenities provided by Southwest (Southwest, 2009).

Pricing

Pricing is "the firm's attempting to capture some of the value in the profits it earns" (Kermally, 2004) and price of goods and services is self-dependents on the products cost, demand and price elasticity, competition, government in term of taxation, and other marketing mix in term of market positioning.

Fares:

Business Select

Anytime

Wanna Get Away

Price:

US$ 479

US$ 454

US$ 144 - 412

Source: (Southwest, 2010)

Southwest Airlines is using 'price discrimination' to target their customer which is "a nonlinear charging a different prices for the same product and services" (Miravete, 2005). This concept used to ensure customers have the power to choose the type of fares they preferred as to suit their income level and expectations in term of services.

Promotion

Promotion is "how the potential customer gets to know about the product/services and why they should buy the product/services" (Ruskin-Brown, 2006). Overall promotion is to ensure customers aware of the product availability, as a reminding and to persuade the customer about the product.

The diagram below has shown the five types of promotion strategies to promote the product. The promotion strategies use by Southwest Airlines is 'Below the Line' promotional activities which are using various types of promotions besides advertising itself to promote their promotion packages, air fares and their services; to ensure their promotion reach the consumers at large.

Below are the key areas of focus by SWA in its promotional campaign:-

Sales Promotion

Sales promotion is "a short term incentives to increases sales" (Gillespie, 2001) such as guerrilla marketing. Southwest's using sales promotion strategy to encourage travellers to travel more often. For example, the Senior Fares which provides 20pc off to all senior citizen in the U.S. as to make air travel cheaper (Brown, 2010), besides that Southwest's also provides cheap flight as low as US$ 59 from time to time as to encourage more people to travel.

Advertising

Advertising is a "paid for means of communication" (Gillespie, 2001). Southwest's using newspaper, magazine, email and their southwest website to advertise their promotions; the strategy they use is to target their potential customer's and secondly it is cheaper compare to broadcast media.

Since southwest is a low cost carrier which does not require having expensive advertising because it will incur additional cost where Southwest will unable to keep their cost lower.

Public Relation

Public relation is "involving in managing relations with different publics" (Gillespie, 2001). Southwest's LUV is their primary corporate charity; to assist people who in need. Caden Ledbetter Golf Tournament is the best example where Southwest's raise money for Caden to help him in his fourth stage of neuro-blastoma disease, besides that Ronald McDonald House is a charity organisation; to raise funds to children who in need, and by this Southwest's has create a favourable impression in the society at large.

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